Fun Things To Try With Your TBR

Whether you have a monthly TBR, mood read or if like me, you just create a new TBR when you’ve finished your current one, it can get a little samey. Sometimes we just want to mix things up, but we can’t always think of an obvious way to do it.

There are a lot of fun TBR games out there, and I usually want to give them a try. But it’s not always quick and easy to do so.

That doesn’t mean you can’t though. There are definitely ways you can try something different with your TBR. Even if it’s not a permanent change, you might want to try these out sometimes.

TBR Jar

A TBR jar is probably the easiest way to pick your TBR blindly. The way I do it is I write all my books down on sheets of paper, which I’ve folded and put into a jar. When I’m picking my TBR, I pull out however many books I want. It’s easy to do, but it means I’m not in complete control of what I pick.

I do also have a few sheets that say pick a Scribd book or a library book. I do this to try to ensure that I borrow books sometimes too.

If you don’t like the idea of having no control over your picks, or if you’d rather have sheets of paper that you can use over and over? You could try popping prompts in the jar instead. It’s just as easy, but it might feel a little more like a game.

Buy a Dice

If you do want to gamify your TBR a little more than you can with a jar, all you really need is a dice. You could roll a die for the number of shelves, then another for what book you pick off that shelf. You could write a list of books – the number depending on what number sided dice you have – and roll until you get the numbered books off that list.

Or you could create some prompt cards. You can roll a dice to decide how many cards; you could shuffle and lay some out and then use the dice to decide which you pick up etc.

If you don’t already have dice in your house and don’t want anything fancy? Dice could be a fun way to mix your options up.

Try a Simple TBR Game

Some TBR games you watch are more complicated than others. You probably won’t want to be creating a full board game or wheel. Especially if you aren’t going to be using it every time.

But some of them are very easily accessible.

G from Book Roast shares digital files of TBRvatar board and cards online. As Becca does Bookaplathon, she’s shared a few of her boards online that you can print for yourself.

If you don’t want to or can’t afford to print something like that?

If you have access to a dartboard, you can play dart attack like Maddie. You just need to make your own prompts. Gavin’s Play your TBR right literally only requires the books you want to read and a deck of cards. You can get a basic deck of cards for £1 if you don’t own any yet.

Other Suggestions

If you prefer something fully digital, then there are still ways you can pick books.

You can use a random number generator. Just count up all your unread books, and pick the number you get. You can do this through GoodReads shelves or literally by just counting your books.

You could also type up a long list of prompts, number them then use a random number generator to see what you get.

There is also The TBR Machine – which the creator of also does a video for each month. With that, you won’t even need to come up with your own prompts. It’s all there for you.

You can also just decide to do readathons. There will usually be prompts or paths that you need to fill, so if you’re just looking for something for the odd month or so? You might be able to find one with prompts that interest you!